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Book Review: Sisters of the Vast Black

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Title: Sisters of the Vast Black
Author: Lina Rather
Release Date: 29 Oct 2019
Source: bought 
Rating: 5 stars

I bought this book not long after it was released, sometime in late 2019, and then never got around to reading it, even though the premise was very exciting to me. Just one of those things, of course. But now I have finally taken the time to sit down and read it (it’s a novella, it only took about three hours once I finally just SAT DOWN), and wow was it great! (This also happens to be the first book of the year to fulfill a spot on my 2021 Reading Challenge!)

Sisters of the Vast Black is a novella by Lina Rather that manages to pack all the punch of a vast epic space opera into a very small 155-page package. It follows the space-faring convent of Sisters from the Order of Saint Rita, on board their living-ship called the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations. The sisters are out in the far reaches of space, in the “third system” of planets away from Earth, several decades after a disastrous and bloody war between Earth and its rebelling colonies. Most of the sisters have never even SEEN Earth, having been born and raised on space stations or other planets and moons. They administer to the sick and spread the word of God, though they feel that proselytizing is the least important of their duties. At the beginning of the story, they are going to a small moon to bless a brand new colony and perform marriage and baptisms for several colonists. But aboard the ship, many of the sisters harbor deep secrets.

The Mother Superior of their convent took a vow of silence forty years ago, and speaks using sign language, but is the REASON for her vow of silence that she has kept a closely-guarded secret for decades. Another sister is hiding the fact that she joined the convent under false pretenses. And a third sister has been keeping up a secret correspondence that could have a huge impact on her faith and her choices.

All of these things come to head in the climax of the story, when a distress signal calls them back to the colony they had just blessed weeks before. When they arrive, they must face many things: the consequences of their actions, the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church, and the renewed strength of the Earth Central Government.

To understand why I loved this little book so much, you’ll need a tiny bit of personal background info. I was raised in a very devout Catholic family until the age of thirteen, when my mother had an enormous crisis of faith and left the church. She became agnostic, and finally atheist, while I lingered in the faith for a very long time. Up until about the age of sixteen, I was pretty sure I was going to become a nun later in life. Even in college, by which point I had started to learn doubt and become angry with the hypocrisies of the Church, I still minored in theology. Nowadays, I don’t know what I would classify myself as, religiously-speaking: spiritual but not religious, uncertain and ambivalent and more than a little angry? But I still hold a deep fascination with and love for the saints, and my Patron Saint is, in fact, Saint Rita. 

Because of all this, Sisters of the Vast Black speaks to me on quite a few levels. First of all: I love a good space opera, and this is definitely a good space opera despite its small size. The science fiction elements are precise and well-written, and the ending was satisfying. But more importantly, the way the story deals with faith and doubt, with the contradictions of believing in God and messages of the Catholic faith while acknowledging and despising the evils of the Catholic Church, and with the inevitable blending between the Church and imperialist governments… all of this punched my right in the gut. All of the sisters were deeply sympathetic and complex characters that I could recognize and identify with myself or family and friends.

I do believe that anyone who enjoys a good space opera, or the compactness of a well-executed novella will like this book. But I think it will be ESPECIALLY potent for people who come from religious backgrounds in general, and the Catholic Church specifically. It will likely speak to you on a deep, perhaps even existential level. And if so, I hope you will share your thoughts with me sometime!

Last Book Review of 2020: The Arrest

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Hello and welcome to my final book review for the year 2020! I finally finished this book at nearly the last possible minute. I started it in October, got about halfway through it, and then one thing led to another and it kept getting pushed to the back of the line, and I didn’t finally pick it up to finish it until two days ago. This completes my reading for the year. I officially read 46 books this year. My goal was 50, but I’m still very happy with what I managed. And so, without further ado, my last book review of 2020!

Title: The Arrest
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Release Date: 10 Nov 2020
Source: ARC provided by publisher
Rating: 3.5 stars

Well let me start by saying I’m still unsure about the rating. I keep going back and forth between 3.5 and 4 stars. I LIKED this book. I generally love Jonathan Lethem. This book is WEIRD, and I can’t decide how I feel about it. I went in kind of knowing what to expect, having read plenty of other Lethem books. His first two books – Gun, With Occasional Music and Amnesia Moon – are still my favorites, and lord knows THOSE are weird-as-shit books. And yet… this book did not go in any direction I was prepared for and I’m just not sure how I feel.

So, here’s the rundown: The Arrest is a genre-defying post-apocalyptic novel of a kind only Jonathan Lethem could write. It takes us to a United States we would almost, but not quite, recognize, where Sandy Duplessis, aka “Journeyman,” and his sister, Maddie, have become stranded in a sleepy New England town after an unknown catastrophic event causes all technology to fail. With cars dead, communication evaporated, and roads disintegrating, cities and towns across America have become separate isolated city-states. Maddie has adapted, becoming a farmer and respected town citizen. Journeyman has floundered, once a prominent tv writer, now an ersatz delivery man. And then something even stranger than the initial catastrophe happens: a charismatic man named Peter Todbaum from Journeyman’s past appears from nowhere, with seemingly the only car left in the world that actually works. He claims to have driven from California to the East Coast across an America gone wild and savage. And the changes he brings with him could upend the fragile peace the town has built.

Todbaum was a producer before the cataclysmic event they call “The Arrest.” Friends from college, Journeyman and Todbaum had worked together on many scripts for tv and movies, but Todbaum’s main obsession was a dystopian/post-apocalyptic film he could never finish or get into production. In addition, he has remained obsessed with Journeyman’s sister after a brief encounter more than 10 years previously, though she hates him and refuses to speak to him. In his giant nuclear-powered former-drilling-machine vehicle, Todbaum brings unrest and violence into the sleepy New England town, along with the first espresso any has seen in three years, and his increasingly grandiose, fragmented far-fetched stories of driving across America.

Meanwhile, Journeyman is a frankly, spineless man who walks through the whole story nearly mindless and asleep. He does whatever any tells him to do, including the increasingly deranged Todbaum. He never asks questions, objects to anything happening to or around him, or tries to act on anything he thinks or feels. He was frustrating as hell, honestly. I’m pretty sure that was part of the point, but what do I know?

The prose, as anything Lethem writes, is wry and sharp and funny in an unsettling kind of way. Lethem creates colorful images of this world gone insane with spare well placed detail. The main characters are complex and the large cast of side characters are painted with careful brush strokes that highlight the oddities that help them live in the face of this new version of the world. 

This novel is strange, oddly-funny, and dream-like: a cross between post-apocalyptic tale and magical realism, with a healthy dose of philosophical rumination and a treatise on the inherent weirdness of the human condition. There are no straight answers here. Lethem loves his non-ending endings, and this one is right up there with the best of them! You will get little closure or resolution from this novel. But the questions will leave you thinking, often grumbling and occasionally laughing, far past the final page.

Favorite Reads of 2020

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Well, it’s that time of year again! Everyone is sharing their “Best Of” lists for all sorts of things: movies, albums, books, etc. I barely saw any movies this year (gee, who’s surprised?) and I didn’t listen to a bunch of NEW music this year (I seemed to mostly stick to the same five or six playlists and dozen or so artists I know I love this year — comfort listening is a thing!). BUT I did read a decent number of books, both new releases for 2020 and older releases. And so I figured I could share my favorite reads for the year. I have two “top 3” lists: one for 2020 new releases, and one for books that were released in previous years but I read for the first time this year.

So, without further ado, here are my FAVORITE READS OF 2020!

New Releases:

House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: If you read my full book review (found here) for this book, then this will come as no surprise to you. If you know me on Twitter, it won’t be a surprise to you either. I love this book so much I cannot express it with words! I have now read it three times in a span of two months! It’s slightly embarrassing, but that’s ok! I love what I love, and I love this book with all my heart and soul and sinew and bone and atom of my being.

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott: Again, if you read my full book review of this one (found here), you aren’t remotely surprised by this. I was pretty sure that this was going to be TOP favorite of the year before I ended up reading House in the Cerulean Sea, and being forced to revise that assumption. But it is definitely a very close second. I like a good space opera, but it had been quite awhile since I’d read one, and after reading THIS one, it kicked off a renewed need to read ALL THE SPACE OPERAS. I cannot wait for the sequel to this book!

The Body in the Garden by Katherine Schellman: This was such a great historical mystery book from a debut author who is also a delight on social media. I loved the main character, I loved the side characters, I was kept guessing through the whole book, and it was just so much FUN. (You can find the review for this one here.) I love mystery novels so much, and this one is pretty high up the list of my overall favorites now. I am so excited for the sequel coming out in July!

Previously-Released Books:

Artemis Fowl: Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer: Oh man, what can I say about this book?! I love the Artemis Fowl books, but I hadn’t ever finished the series the first time around, so one of my goals for this year was to finish reading all the Artemis Fowl books. And this one, book seven of eight, is DEFINITELY my favorite. I could not stop laughing through the whole thing! It was just too hilarious for words! I loved it so much, and Nathaniel Parker’s narration in the audiobook is just too perfect! For my full rant about the Artemis Fowl series, check out this post: “Fowl By Name, Foul By Nature.”

Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson: I didn’t read as many nonfiction books I had initially planned on this year, but I read a decent handful that I absolutely LOVED. (Including Disney’s Land by Richard Snow and Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt), but this one was definitely my favorite nonfiction book of the year. I love a really in-depth history book, and I am endlessly fascinated by the story of T.E. Lawrence and the movie Lawrence of Arabia. This book was SHOCKINGLY good, and filled with so much fascinating history that I would never have learned otherwise.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire: This book came out in 2019 and I had started last year but ended up putting it aside because I was so busy with other things. It took me quite awhile to get back to it but I’m so glad I did! I already knew I loved Seanan McGuire because of her Wayward Children novella series, but this book is just NEXT LEVEL. (I wrote a review here!) I am still enormously upset that it didn’t win the Hugo Award this year. It was so phenomenal and heart-wrenching and intense and beautiful! Just UGH! GO READ IT NOW! (She is reportedly working on a sequel but there are no details yet, and just… *flails*)

Book Review: Hall of Smoke

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Title: Hall of Smoke
Author: H.M. Long
Release Date: 19 January 2021
Source: ARC provided by publisher
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC of this book from the publisher, through my work, and WOW am I glad I got to read this! Hall of Smoke, from Titan Books, is the debut release for author H.M. Long. This standalone novel is epic fantasy vaguely inspired by Norse/Germanic cultures, featuring a kickass heroine and gods who literally walk the earth. The basic premise is this:

The world has fallen into chaos as gods wage war against each other, using their human followers and acolytes as pawns and weapons. In the distant past, the new gods had emerged and defeated the old gods, caging them away. These new gods walked the earth, calling their chosen peoples to follow them. But now the old gods have escaped, and all people may perish in the wake of their rage. Caught in the middle is Hessa, a priestess for the goddess of war Eang. When she is exiled by her goddess for disobedience, Hessa unwittingly becomes the only surviving member of her order, her home temple having been attacked and ravaged by invaders from the mountains. Now she is on a quest to fulfill the orders of her goddess and kill a man she has already failed to kill twice. On the path of this quest, she will encounter people from an empire with armies more numerous than the stars in the sky, face down gods old and new, and learn to question everything she has ever been taught about the gods and her place in the world.

It is difficult to discuss why this book is fantastic without getting too spoilery, but I shall attempt it. The main character, Hessa, is powerful and intelligent, complex and flawed, pious and full of doubt. She makes mistakes. She contemplates giving up. She is forced to question and reconsider everything she has ever believed. The entire novel moves with breathless, relentless intensity as Hessa encounters setback after setback. I swear she could NOT catch a single break. The people she encounters are by turns compassionate, brutal, and cunning. The people who tried to help her usually failed or died, or ended up betraying her. And yet she never gives up. She keeps pushing forward. And it was so amazing to witness.

The world-building is rich and textured, with an enormous pantheon of petty, violent, vengeful gods. As I mentioned, the cultures are at least vaguely inspired by Norse/Germanic tribes, filled with blonde and red-head, axe-wielding warriors, and mountain men, and earth-worshipping nomadic tribes. One of the main antagonizing forces (one of several) also appears to be based on the Roman Empire: they are invading from an outside land, with an empire that is far more vast and powerful than Hessa had been able to imagine (bigger even than she had assumed the WHOLE WORLD to be), they have an all-powerful emperor under a uniting government, with a highly skilled and regimented military. So yeah, very Roman. But that is not to say that H.M. Long just plopped a carbon copy of these cultures into her book with different names. She has clearly done her research (I believe she is a historian who specializes in Norse culture?) but she also gives it all her own spin, her own creative world-building twists. And it works very very well.

On top of all that, the intensely-driven plot packs all the excitement, drama, and bloody fight scenes you could possibly hope for. The fight scenes are extremely well written, with all the visceral edge-of-your-seat brutality you might expect from the finest of action films.

I really enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good epic fantasy in the vein of Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan, and especially if you want a good epic fantasy but need a break from the giant sprawling series that won’t be complete for another ten or fifteen years. And I cannot wait to see what H.M. Long writes next!

You can pre-order the book at all the usual places, including: Indiebound, Bookshop.org

It is also (spoiler alert!) the January adult book option for the Fox & Wit book subscription box service (which is where I work, fyi). We might have a few copies left for pre-order here: Fox & Wit Adult Book Subscription.

Book Review: Solutions and Other Problems

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Book: Solutions and Other Problems
Author: Allie Brosh
Release Date: September 2020
Source: own
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

If you’re familiar with the name Allie Brosh, you know where this is going. Allie Brosh maintained a blog called Hyperbole and a Half, which was half personal essay, half comic (drawn with child-like simplicity). The blog discussed her rather unusual childhood, her struggles with severe depression, and her very silly dog. It was at turns hilarious, heartfelt, sobering, and very very recognizable to those of us who also deal with severe depression.

In October 2013, her first book was published, also titled Hyperbole and a Half, which contains some essays/comics from her blog, as well as new material. It did very well. She went on book tours and all that. And then she disappeared, seemingly off the face of the planet, for seven years.

When Simon & Schuster announced the imminent release of her new book (I think I first heard about it no sooner than July of this year), it was a SHOCK! There had been no news of Allie Brosh for AGES. I had wondered often how she was doing, and if she had perhaps lost her battle with depression and suicide ideation after all. And suddenly here she was again! I was ecstatic! And I still am.

Her new book, titled Solutions and Other Problems, covers a lot of ground. It covers the reasons for her long disappearance, including severe physical health issues (she nearly died!), a divorce, and the death of her sister. It also covers, in far more detail than her first book, how truly strange she was as a child (and still is!). Just like her first book, and the blog before it, it is both hilarious and sobering. And heartbreaking. I laugh so hard during the first few chapters I could barely breathe. A few chapters later, and I was crying.

The simplistic child-like drawing style is the same, and her characteristic wit and humor are still there, but this book is angrier and sadder than her first book. And for good reason, as you’ll see if you read it.

And yet, it is still laugh-out-loud hilarious. I’m not sure how she manages to hold these conflicting tones and feelings in balance, but she does. Constantly. I suspect it is how she lives her whole life, and is probably the only way she has managed to survive as long as she has.

Now, to help you understand the true hilarity and insanity of this book, I would like to share just a bit of the second chapter. In this chapter, Allie Brosh explains how she discovered she could sneak into the cat door of her neighbor’s house, and proceeded to…. go insane… It is probably the funniest chapter in the book. Here is just ONE page to illustrate:

I need you all to understand that this is pretty early-on in the proceedings. It gets a LOT more insane from here…

In any case, if you want to laugh and cry and have your heart ripped out of your chest; if you’ve dealt with depression, or the death of a loved one, this book (and her first book) might just be for you.

When I See Myself in a Book; or: Book Review of The House in the Cerulean Sea

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I wanted to write a book review for The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. But I find that as I think and talk and write about this book, I am also thinking and talking and writing about a handful of other books, so you’ll have to forgive me for being more scattered than usual. Because, you see, I loved this book. I loved this book madly. And I loved this book for some of the same reasons I have for some other books I also love madly. And so they have all become a bit tangled in my brain now.

The House in the Cerulean Sea came out in March, and my friend and employer, Mary, read it and recommended it to me. I put a hold on an audiobook copy at the library, but the waitlist was ENORMOUS and I waited over three months before I finally received it this past Thursday. The audiobook is approx 12.5 hours long. I listened to 3.5 hrs on Thursday evening. I finished the last 9 hours in one go on Friday. I DEVOURED this book, my friends. I adored it.

Having said that, let me backtrack a tad, and talk about myself a tiny bit. I do not feel like a main character. Not in my own story. Not in anyone else’s. For the most part, people like me do not tend to make it as main characters in stories, but every once in awhile I read a book or a see a movie (but it’s usually a book), and I see myself. At least a bit. There are some characters that I feel so much kinship with that it is mildly embarrassing, and that usually means I will end up loving that book like a piece of my own soul, because in these books this person who looks and feels like me somehow actually gets their happy ending.

Characters like Anne Eliot, from Persuasion by Jane Austen. Like Bastian from Neverending Story. Lirael from Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series. Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. And now, Linus Baker from The House in the Cerulean Sea.

These characters are intelligent, and honorable, but they are quiet, and painfully shy; they are awkward, or bullied, or ignored, or invisible; they are sad and gray and desperately lonely, and resigned to their fates.

And perhaps it is melodramatic to say that that is also me. But something can be a tad melodramatic and also be true.

I see these characters like me, who live quietly desperate routine lonely lives with no hope of being or doing anything special, and then I see these characters GET TO LIVE and to LOVE. The adventure finally comes. The world finally sees them. Love finally finds them. And it gives me hope. (Though I’ll admit that often, once I finish a book with this character, I also find myself weirdly depressed, as I reflect on the fact that I am not likely to ever get a similar happy ending. I am more like these characters at the beginning of their stories, when they are sad and lonely and resigned, than I will ever be like them at the end of their stories.)

So, to return to The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune.

Book: The House in the Cerulean Sea
Author: T.J. Klune
Release Date: March 2020
Source: borrowed from the library
Rating: 6 out of 5 stars (can I do that? Guess, don’t care! Just did!)

The House in the Cerulean Sea follows main character Linus Baker: Linus is overweight and out of shape, he’s forty, he’s desperately lonely, and resigned to his fate. He is a case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, because in this version of Earth (it IS Earth, they have computers, and record players, and Linus’s favorite music is oldies like The Big Bopper and Sinatra), magical beings exist. But these magical creatures are heavily monitored; they have to be registered and they are not allowed to hold positions of power or authority (in other words, they are a hugely oppressed minority). Linus inspects orphanages for magical youth (not all magical children are orphans but many of them are), but unlike most case workers, Linus really cares about the welfare of the children, and looks for problems like Masters who abuse or take advantage of the children under their care.

With a reputation for being objective, keeping distance from the children, and very thorough, Linus is brought before Very Upper Management, and given a top secret case: to go visit and live at a top secret orphanage on an island, run by a man named Arthur Parnassus, who has six children under his care. Linus is supposed to look for any issues, because Very Upper Management has “reasons for concern.” It seems pretty clear from the get-go, however, that they are just looking for an excuse to shut it down.

Linus arrives at the orphanage to discover that the children there are unlike any other magical children he has ever seen or heard of. These children are: a female garden gnome with the beard and everything!, a Forest sprite more powerful than any other he’s met, a wyvern (whom people used to think of as animals, but do in fact have intelligent and complex emotions and language, just not human language), a tall shy black kid who is a were-POMERANIAN!, a green blob named Chauncey whose greatest ambition in life is to be a BELLHOP, and a six year old boy who is the literal Anti-Christ.

And then there is the Master of the orphanage, Arthur Parnassus, who is very charming and cares deeply for the children under his care. Linus, unsurprisingly, immediately develops a crush on him.

And folks, it just gets more adorable from there! 

This book is funny, and charming, and quirky, and delightful in ways I cannot begin to express! It deals with deeply emotional issues like child abuse, and racial (or in this case, SPECIES) prejudice and oppression, and despite this it manages to be one of the happiest, most hopeful books I’ve read in YEARS. I smiled like a madwoman through the whole thing. And when I finished the audiobook from the library and returned it (and saw that there was now a six month wait on the book!), I immediately bought the ebook AND audiobook so I can read it again.

I identified so strongly with poor, put-upon, lonely dumpy Linus — who is finally given the opportunity to show how honorable and good and kind he is while staying at the orphanage — that it is mildly embarrassing. And I fell in love with Arthur and the children right along with Linus, the whole way through. I am a sucker for quirky odd funny characters, and found family tropes, and this book gave it to me in SPADES. I think this might end up being my favorite book of the year. (Unconquerable Sun held that honor a few months ago, and that is still definitely near the top as well!)

I have a handful of books that I love dearly, and will go around used bookstores buying up paperback copies just so that I can hand them off to people I love, whom I want to share my favorite books with. I don’t do this with some books I love that are so well known, I have no doubt most people have at least heard of them, if not read them (so for instance, I don’t generally do this with Dune or Watership Down, even though they are my favorite books of all time, because most people are already familiar with them). Instead, I do this with books I adore that have not gotten quite the same circulation. Books like Sunshine by Robin McKinley, and Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn, and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, and Neverending Story by Michael Ende (though the movie is so well known, not nearly as many people have read the book!). I can guarantee that as soon as the paperback version of House in the Cerulean Sea is released next year, this book will definitely be added to that prestigious list. In the meantime, since I cannot buy every single one of you a copy to read (I’m poor, people! Or I totally would!), please please please go do yourselves a favor and GO BUY IT NOW! Or borrow it from the library! Either way, just READ IT!

Edit at 4:20pm: I bought the ebook and audiobook for House in the Cerulean Sea, but I SWORE to myself that I wouldn’t read them until after I finish the other three books I’m SUPPOSED to be reading right now (those being: Name of the Wind, The Arrest, and Hall of Smoke)… but… that resolve may end by tonight… I just LOVED IT SO MUCH FOLKS!

Book Review: Clariel

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Book: Clariel (Book 4 of The Old Kingdom series)
Author: Garth Nix
Release Date: 2016
Source: owned
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I’ve been working my way back through the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, as I have read the original trilogy several times, but never got around to reading the prequel (Clariel) or the sequel (Goldenhand) or the two short stories collections that include a couple Old Kingdom stories. So I decided to work through these as part of my “Finish the Series” 2020 reading challenge.

I knew I loved the first three books – Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen – and I trust Garth Nix implicitly, so I went into this book with high expectations. And for the most part, I was not disappointed. I noticed online that some people did not like this book as much as some of his others, but I disagree with most of the criticisms. Is it my favorite book in the series? No, of course not. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

To give a brief description: Clariel takes place approximately 600 years before the events of the original trilogy, so as far as prequels go, it went pretty far back! The main character, Clariel, is a distant relation of both the King and the Abhorsen (and for those familiar with the books, you understand why this is important), but she wants only to become a “borderer” who monitors and protects the great forests of the kingdom, and to be left alone. Her family and political forces behind the throne have other plans however. Dragged against her will away from her home village to the capital city, she is forced to learn how to be a “proper lady” while the governor manipulates events in an effort to marry her to his son, depose the king (who has gone slightly mad and relinquished most of his responsibilities to the governor), and make her his puppet queen. At the same time, forces loyal to the king and the line of succession try to use Clariel to lure a dangerous free magic creature helping the governor out of hiding, and hope to make her a regent in a temporary effort to protect the royal line. (And folks, it just gets more complicated for there!)

Throughout all of this, Clariel discovers she is a Berserk (she goes bloodthirsty with rage when under threat or in high-stress situations) AND she has an affinity for free magic – which is considered highly dangerous and antithetical to human society. While trying to avoid all these political machinations that are attempting to control her, and while trying to find a way to escape back to the forest and the only place she has ever been happy, Clariel slides deeper and deeper into a life of violence, death, and bad decisions.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

It is difficult to talk about why this book is so interesting and unique to me without getting into some spoilers. Some of these spoilers will not be a surprise to people who have read other books in the series, but I still want to give you plenty of warning!

Ready? Ok, here we go into spoilers.

In the original trilogy, there is a character – a villain, one of the people working for the main antagonist – named Chlorr of the Mask. I suspected from the get-go that Clariel was going to end up BEING Chlorr of the Mask. I think anyone who comes into this book with some knowledge of the series would also suspect this. And we would all be correct.

So, what makes this book so interesting is that it is literally the descent of a main character into, perhaps not evil exactly, but amoral self-serving behavior that she manages to rationalize to herself for most of the book. It is a villain origin story. In some ways, it reminded me a bit of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, as we watch Anakin Skywalker, through both manipulation and a series of bad decisions based on fear and anger, fall into darkness and evil. Some online reviews have argued that Clariel’s descent was too quick and not sufficiently developed, but I disagree. I think it was very well done. In fact, I think it was done in a much more believable manner than that of Anakin Skywalker. Her motives, and the ways she is manipulated and tricked by outside forces, were well-written and developed, and fit the character and the world very well.

And, of course, the prose was beautiful and powerful, as Garth Nix’s writing always is.

This is not the first or only book to feature an evil origin story. But I do think such stories are outside the norm, especially in YA (and especially when this book was released in 2016). And I appreciate that Garth Nix did something a bit different and unique, in writing a character that we can totally sympathize with, and even like, while also recognizing that many of the decisions she makes are wrong. That, to me, is the sign of a well-written and complex character.

One other characteristic of note about Clariel is that she is, I believe, written to be asexual/aromantic. And that is EXTREMELY unusual in any fiction, especially in YA. There are many points in the book where Clariel explicitly states that she has no interest in romance, or falling in love, or sex. At one point, she says she isn’t interested in boys, and her aunt suggests maybe she’s interested in girls (which is totally fine to these characters!), but Clariel says, no. She isn’t interested in any of that. At another point, she explains that she experimented with sex a couple times and simply did not understand the appeal. And one of the characters throughout the book expressed romantic interest in her, and she rebuffs him every single time. At no point does the story imply that she just needs to be won-over, or that she hasn’t find the right person. This is just who she is. And I really loved that.

Clariel is not, I think, quite as well-plotted, or as beautifully written, or as emotionally impactful as the original trilogy. But I think it holds up with the rest of the series very well, and I really enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to anyone who has read the first three books and was undecided about whether or not to continue.

Recent Acquisitions and a Mini-Review

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My book buying habit has been a bit out of control recently, and so I have a bunch of recent acquisitions to share. So! A catalogue of recent book purchases that have been added to the TBR pile:

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (a new book by one of my favorite authors! I received an ARC of this through work, but never got around to reading it, and I knew I wanted to buy a copy anyway, so here we are!)

Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro (I have not read Mark Oshiro’s other work, but this book sounds really interesting and unique, and I watched a virtual book tour talk he gave, and he seemed really cool too, so I bought it!)

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini (I have had this book on pre-order for MONTHS. I was so excited when it finally showed up!)

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh (I ADORED Allie Brosh’s blog, and I bought her first book and loved it with a fiery passion. I was shocked and delighted when I found out she was releasing a new book after 7 years! I ordered it immediately!)

Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First-Person by Anna Mehler Paperny (this title, and the subject of this book, is something I understand deeply, and struggle with on a daily basis, so… yeah.)

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (I got this as my August Book of the Month book, and then kinda just forgot about it. But it looks amazing and its definitely on the TBR list!)

The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem (I received this ARC through work, the book comes out in November. I’m about 1/3 of the way through so far, and I really like it. I’ll do a full review of this one later!)

So that’s my recent acquisitions. In addition, I wanted to drop a very quick short mini-review for a book I did not finish. I received an ARC of Midnight Bargain through work, but…

The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
Release Date: October 2020
Status: DID NOT FINISH

I only got about 1/4 of the way through this book, which is a shame because I really tried to like it. It’s basically a second-world version of a Victorian fantasy romance, which I usually love. And the basic premise is, if a bit derivative and well-worn, was enjoyable enough. The basic plot is this: in a world reminiscent of Regency or Victorian England (but not), where magic is real, a young woman named Beatrice wants to be a sorceress. Both men and women are capable of magic, but only men are allowed to practice it, and women are barred from it once they become married because of fears of danger to an unborn baby. Beatrice doesn’t want to get married though, she wants to practice magic, and she is willing to make a deal with a mischievous spirit in order to make that goal a reality. Unfortunately, for her, she just happens to meet a charming man who seems to actually SEE her for who she is, and the romance that threatens to blossom between them, could undue all her ambitions.

It’s not a bad plot. Like I said, a bit well-worn, but certainly capable of being made interesting, entertaining, even compelling in the right hands. But the characters were very one-note, especially Beatrice. The love interest has a tad more personality and could be a very swoon-worthy leading man, but the very SUDDEN nature of his romantic interest was… hard to swallow no matter how much “suspension of disbelief” I threw at it. The dialogue was clunky and inauthentic, and the narrative prose was… not great. I was surprised because C.L. Polk’s other books (Witchmark, etc) are very highly regarded, so I was expecting this to be better. But overall, I was just unimpressed and uninterested. I’m a little worried it might just be ME, that I’m missing something, or being too critical, but… *shrug* There are too many books, and time is too limited to keep pushing through something that is clearly not working for me.

Ironically, I am currently also reading Clariel by Garth Nix – it’s the fourth book in the Old Kingdom series – and it has a somewhat similar plot to Midnight Bargain, and does it SO MUCH BETTER. The main character, Clariel, comes from a family with distant connections to the king, and a series of political machinations mean to marry her off, put her on the throne, and make her a political puppet. But Clariel has no interest in marrying anyone (I think she’s written to be aromantic/asexual even!), she has no interest in the throne, or magic, or the city: she just wants to go be a solitary hunter/border patrol in the great forests, and she’s willing to do some questionable things to get what she wants. Like I said, somewhat similar plots, but the difference in writing is ENORMOUS. All the characters in Clariel are much more real, flawed and complex and interesting. And the prose is just WORLDS AWAY better. It’s been a very apt comparison, and its pure coincidence I happened to be reading them at the same time, to make that difference in quality so much more apparent. But here we are.

Book Review: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

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Book: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Release Date: 2011
Source: owned
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Well hello, all! It’s been awhile (almost a full month to be exact), and I haven’t written a thing since my last blog post. Not a thing! It’s quite horrifying. But I’ve just been so swamped with work and general life nonsense, and any free time I had (which wasn’t much) was mostly devoted to passing out.

BUT, I come bearing a new book review, so I hope all is forgiven!

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente is one of those books that I have been meaning to read for AGES. I started it once, a couple years ago, but only got about 4 or 5 chapters in before something happened — I don’t even remember WHAT — to distract me from the book and I never got back to it. Until now!

I downloaded the audiobook, since lately the only time I’ve had to “read” is when I can listen to an audiobook while I work (which has made getting through my stack of ARCs extra difficult, since those don’t generally come in audio format, more’s the pity). And I “read” the audiobook in like two days flat!

Folks, it was SO GOOD!

I suspect most people have at least a vague idea of what the book is about, since it’s been out for so long already (it was released in 2011!), but BASICALLY: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a portal fantasy in the fine tradition of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, etc. It follows the adventures of a young girl named September who one evening is whisked away from her home in Omaha, Nebraska by The Green Wind (as a dashing gentleman in a green coat, riding The Leopard of Small Breezes). September is a smart, precocious child who hates pink and loves anything orange, who reads a lot, and who is described as being “somewhat heartless” (but our narrator assures us that ALL children are born a bit heartless and their hearts grow as they grow). Her father has gone off to war (the book never says which war, but I get the impression it’s WW1?) and her mother works in a factory building engine parts. September doesn’t want to be in her house, or in Omaha (at one point the narrator says Omaha isn’t a place for ANYONE to be, and I laughed out loud because my best friend lives in Omaha), so she leaps at the chance to go on an adventure with The Green Wind.

But the moment September enters Fairyland she is alone, because The Green Wind cannot get the right visa to be allowed in, so she must travel on her own, with nothing but her own wits and courage to keep her going. In Fairyland she meets witches, a wyvern (who may be half-library on his father’s side) named A-through-L, a a marid named Saturday, and comes face-to-face with the villain of the story: The Marquess, who may or may not have killed the previous ruler of Fairyland, Queen Mallow.

And then the story gets CRAZY.

This story is beautiful and odd and heart-breaking like all the best portal fantasies are. The prose is lyrical and clever and arch, with the narrator often breaking through to speak directly to the readers in ways that are both hilarious and illuminating. The characters and imagery are so strange and unique and fascinating, as they should be in the best kinds of portal fantasy. This story feels like a classic, like it’s been around for decades and decades, not just 9 years!

The backstory of the Marquess (I’m trying not to be spoilery here) made me legit cry, because it is precisely the thing I think about at the end of every portal fantasy, the thing that I fear, the thing that breaks my heart at the end of so many stories. When I got to that scene, I had to stop and cry for awhile before I could continue.

Supposedly, this book (and the whole series) is targeted at the middle grade readers market, for ages 10-14. And it certainly shelved and sold in the children’s sections at most bookstores. But I feel like an adult is actually going to get more out of it than a child will. There are parts, especially some of the things the narrator says, but also things like the Marquess’s backstory, that are almost certainly meant for an adult to read and appreciate and FEEL deeply, in their bones.

The ending was bittersweet and I had to sit back and let it soak in. But I am comforted by the fact that there are more books to read — four more books, in fact, plus a short story prequel! Thank goodness.

As a side note, I firmly believe that September from this story, and January from Alix Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January are best friends in some parallel universe. Just so you know.

If, like me, you kept meaning to read this book but hadn’t yet, consider this your call to action. Go! Now! Read!

Book Review: Charmed Life

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Book: Charmed Life (Book 1 of the Worlds of Chrestomanci)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Release Date: 1977
Source: Borrowed audiobook from the library
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

As part of my 2020 “Storm the Castle” Reading Challenge, I needed to read three books that had been on my TBR list ten years or more. I read Solaris, and A Wrinkle in Time, and last for that part of the challenge, I chose Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones.

Charmed Life came out in 1977, and it is the first of the Worlds of Chrestomanci series (I think The Lives of Christopher Chant, which is probably the most popular of the series). I read Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle and its two sequels: Castle in the Air, and House of Many Ways ages and AGES ago. I had always planned on reading more of her books but never seemed to get around to it. So, I finally did it! (Admittedly, I “read” the book on audio, which is the only way I’ve been able to get any reading done lately, because it can often do it while I’m working).

So, Charmed Life follows the misadventures of young Cat Chant (real name Eric, but everyone calls him Cat), who is an orphan with his sister Gwendolen. Their parents died in a boating accident, during which Cat himself almost died but survived by clinging to Gwendolen who showed signs of being a witch at a young age and therefore could not drown. Cat spends all his time following behind his sister, who is older, talented, very bossy, and taking magic lessons from the local magician, Mr. Nostrum.

Gwendolen is very bossy, and strong, and often very mean to Cat (and others). At one point she turns Cat’s violin (he’s been taking music lessons) into an actual cat, who then runs away. And Mr. Nostrum is very happy to encourage these tendencies. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that it becomes clear very quickly that Gwendolen is going to be one of the main antagonists (dare I say villains) of the story.

By a series of incidents orchestrated by Gwendolen and Mr. Nostrum, Cat and Gwendolen are eventually adopted by the mysterious Chrestomanci – a tall elegant man who is clearly feared by Mr. Nostrum and respected by many others, though it is very unclear to Cat (and to the readers) exactly WHY. At Chrestomanci’s Castle, Cat and Gwendolen meet Chrestomanci’s wife Millie and two children, Roger and Julia, who have magical abilities like Gwendolen. The castle has strange magical properties of its own as well. Gwendolen immediately takes a dislike to absolutely everyone, and starts a campaign of childish but magically-fueled terror on Roger, Julia, Chrestomanci, and the rest of the household. She tries again and again to force Chrestomanci to react to her and notice her, but Chrestomanci mostly ignores her, until she finally goes too far and her magic is taken away as punishment.

Things don’t go TRULY nuts, however, until Gwendolen manages to remove herself to another dimension, pulling a replacement version of herself called Janet from another another dimension to hide her disappearance. Suddenly, Cat has a series of disasters on his hands: an evil sister gone missing to who-knows-where, a replacement who doesn’t understand that magic exists and needs constant watching over as no one else has noticed she’s not Gwendolen, several threats of magical retribution on his head for various misdeeds actually perpetuated by Gwendolen, and Mr. Nostrum who has come calling with some dark secret plan he expects Cat to help him with.

How all of this insanity gets resolved, I will leave to you all to read and see for yourself.

I really enjoyed this book quite a lot. It has Diana Wynn Jones’ signature charm, wit, and dry humor. It is not funny on a level like, for instance, Terry Pratchett, but there were quite a few parts that made me chuckle out loud. Chrestomanci, in particular, I found very funny in that dry, sarcastic, “I’m pretending I’m oblivious and don’t know what’s going on” way that I always appreciate and enjoy. On top of that, I routinely hit parts on the book where I thought “I don’t see how it could get more insane than this!” And then it DID. Cat does some things that frustrated the hell out of me, in that “no! Why! Don’t! Go tell an adult!” way, but it all made sense for the character. And it fits that very traditional way in stories in which children never feel safe to actually just tell an adult that they’re in trouble and need help.

Somewhat ironically, when I started writing this review yesterday, just a few hours after finishing the book, I had planned to get it a 4 out of 5. I really enjoyed it, but I was thinking “was it so great as to deserve a 5?” But then this morning, when I was getting a new audiobook loaded to listen to while I worked, I found that I really just wanted to listen to more Charmed Life – which, of course, I couldn’t as I had already returned the book to the library and my library doesn’t have any of the rest of the Chrestomanci series available. So that indicated to me that I had actually enjoyed it even more than I, at first, realized. And it has been lingering in my thoughts all of last night and today. So, it does deserve a 5 out of 5 after all!

If you, like me, have been intending to read more (or any) books by Diana Wynne Jones and just never seem to get around to it, consider this your sign to get started now! I highly recommend this book! And I fully intend to read the rest of the series when I can get them (either on audiobook, or perhaps in print, from my used bookstore).